1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a file management apparatus and a file management apparatus controlling method compatible with online storage services.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exist local storage arrangements such as storage devices incorporated in users' terminals (called “user terminal” hereunder) and external storage devices to be connected to the user terminal, the devices being configured to store various files.
Progress in communication technology in recent years has given birth to online services (Web services) offering to store files in an online storage on the Internet. With such services, the user terminal uploads and downloads files to and from the online storage.
In order to enhance the availability of such online storage, there has been proposed a file management apparatus (see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2010-287104) offering an experience in which a user is led to utilize an online storage without becoming aware of it.
The file management apparatus proposed in the above-cited Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2010-287104 includes an application for automatically uploading the files held in the apparatus to an online storage. The proposed apparatus presents the user with a display of virtual files indicating as if the files are held inside the apparatus although they are actually in the online storage.
Meanwhile, some online storage providers impose constraints on the use of their services so that some unscrupulous users will not abuse or monopolize service offerings.
As a result, with the type of file management apparatus disclosed notably in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2010-287104 in which an online storage is handled as a local storage, the use constraints imposed by the provider may disable attempts to access the online storage, thus making it impossible to read or write files.
The present disclosure has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides a file management apparatus and a file management apparatus controlling method for suitably reading and writing files even where the use of an online storage is subject to constraints imposed by the service provider.